Looking Forward To New Opportunities

posted by Chris Hagenow | 12.40pc
November 18, 2016

The historic 2016 election is finally behind us and I am humbled and truly grateful to be given another two years to serve House District 43. I am also honored that my colleagues have chosen me to serve another term as Majority Leader.

I am looking forward to taking a short break and enjoying Thanksgiving with my family next week. I have a lot to be thankful for and the opportunity to serve Iowans at the Statehouse is at the top of my list. While I am ready for a change of pace, I am already thinking about the upcoming session and everything House Republicans will accomplish during the 87th General Assembly. We made promises to voters along the way and intend to use the power Iowans entrusted to us to keep those promises.

Making progress on our priorities starts with a balanced budget. We must stick to our common sense budgeting principles and continue to work off the foundation we have built. House Republicans remain committed to spending less than the state collects and not using one-time money to fund on-going needs.

One of our top priorities again this session is improving water quality in our state. Last session, our plan to provide funding for both urban and rural water quality projects stalled in the Senate. While I am disappointed we did not see meaningful progress on this issue, I am hopeful, with a new Republican majority in the Senate, we will make progress on this issue during the upcoming session.

As we begin to build our agenda for the upcoming session, we will look for ways to relieve the tax burden on working Iowans, make it easier to do business in our state, and improve access to quality education and training. While we have worked to make progress in these areas over the past few years, many of our ideas were dead-on-arrival in the Senate. Next year, with a new Senate majority, many of these ideas can now be considered and sent to the Governor. Our caucus is ready to revisit and continue working on issues we’ve worked on in the past, as well as bring new ideas to the table to move Iowa forward.

I would love to hear from you on what kinds of things are important to you, policy ideas to address this session, or any other feedback you may have.